A berth in the Copa America Centenario championship game will be on the line on Tuesday night when defending tournament champions Chile hit the pitch against Colombia as slender +150 betting favourites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
La Roja powered their way to a semifinal berth with a devastating 7-0 beating of Mexico in the quarter-finals, erasing the memory of their recent 1-1-5 swoon, and have now won three straight ahead of Tuesday night’s matchup at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Pre-tournament losses to Jamaica and Mexico resulted in tempered expectation, leaving Chile with diminished +700 odds to repeat as champions at the outset of the tourney.
Chile opened the tournament with a 2-1 loss to Argentina in a riveting rematch of last year’s final, further eroding their odds. However, with their stunning defeat over Mexico as +170 underdogs they now trail only Argentina at +325 on the Copa America Centenario title odds.
Colombia faced a tougher task in their quarter-final matchup with Peru, playing to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes before claiming a 4-2 win on penalties, and are now pegged as +195 three-way betting underdogs against Chile.
The club opened with an impressive 2-0 win over an awestruck United States side, who failed to land a shot on goal in the contest, and clinched a knockout stage berth with a 2-1 win over Paraguay. But they suffered a letdown in a 3-2 loss to Costa Rica in the Group A finale, a match in which they were listed as heavy -155 chalk.
That loss ended a five-game win streak for Colombia, who are unbeaten in their past three against Chile but have managed just two victories in 12 all-time meetings between the sides at the Copa America.
In Tuesday night’s other semifinal matchup, Argentina will be gunning for their fourth appearance in the final over the past five editions of the tournament, as they take on the host United States as -220 betting favourites.
La Albiceleste have been perfect so far at this year’s tournament, outscoring opponents by a 14-2 margin in four straight wins to emerge as clear -175 favourites to claim their first Copa America crown since 1993.
The steadily improving Americans make their first appearance in the Copa America semifinal since 1995 as big +650 underdogs. The United States are a respectable 2-2-3 in their past seven games against Argentina, but have claimed just one win in five meetings at major tournaments, a 3-0 victory in the group stage of the 1995 Copa America.